Christmas Eve and other news...

First let me wish you all a very Merry Christmas! I hope you all have a safe, healthy and magical holiday.
Happy Hanukkah as well! We'll be attending a Hanukkah celebration, our first, on the 27th. We're very excited to spend that time with some wonderful friends. On the 30th we'll be attending our first Bar Mitzvah and help Eiton celebrate his day.

News! Kristina is doing beautifully in school and did wonderfully on all her finals. AP Chemistry had her running around scared, but she passed the final with one of the highest scores in the class.

Olivia had her first Violin concert and is now anxious to audition for the upper string section for next year. Sorry, no pictures. The battery in the camera needed to be changed and we didn't figure that out until we were on our way to Air Academy H. S. where the concert took place.

Jolie did her holiday choir concert at a assisted living facility where most of the audience were asleep! As I told David, none of our youngest children have been around older people for any length of time and as such they don't understand.

Cisco is doing great and growing by leaps and bounds. I have no idea what he weighs at this point but I'm sure its close to 7 - 8 lbs. He's as long as Jake and Max but with much shorter legs. He is definitely going to be height challenged!

Knitting as usual with spinning thrown in. Love the spinning! Have done multiple skeins of hand spun yarn. Anxious to start picking out some projects to do with them. I'm thinking a set of fingerless mitts for one. We'll see!

We had a fabulous time in Minnesota for Thanksgiving. Check Bonnie's blog for pictures!

http://galone09.blogspot.com/

Merry Christmas everyone......

Wish Lists, Knitting and more...

So the excitement of the holidays are upon this group. Dad had everyone make up their Christmas wish list. This is the time of year that we stop all personal purchases for the kids. Anotherwords they aren't allowed to buy items for themselves. We've had a few years where items that were already wrapped and under the tree, walked into the house a few days or weeks before Christmas in the arm of a kiddo. Duplications can lead to tricky/sticky situations. So we came up with the idea to not allow the kids to go shopping for themselves just prior to Christmas to eliminate that scenerio. So lists in hand the shopping has commenced!
I've actually made my firsts hanks of yarn spinning on a spinning wheel and a drop spindle. I'm really enjoying this and have been surprised at how relaxing I find spinning. I honestly didn't think that spinning would do that for me. I'll be giving back the spinning wheel that I borrowed shortly, but another friend lent me her wheel to try out. This new wheel is a double treadle where the other wheel is a single. I'm really getting to experience the differences in wheels before eventually making a purchase of my own. My drop spindle is still a favorite and at this moment I have a lovely alpaca/wool blend that I'm spinning up. Beautiful sheen. The roving I purchased in Taos a few weeks ago has made for an excellent learning tool for the wheel and spindle. Yesterday a friend and I headed up to Tablerock Llamas to look around and I purchased some more roving. A beautiful Teal color base mixed with lots of other strings of colors. I'm anxious to try it out on the spindle, I think.

Appointments made! Well...... for the pups. Cisco is going in for his neutering just before Christmas. So we should have a somewhat docile pup for the holidays? Yeah, I know.

Then Max and Jake go in to get their teeth cleaned in Febuary for Dental Health month. Most vets clean teeth that month for a discounted rate. So I called and just happened to get Dr. Barb on the phone, so I asked about a group discount. She said that we were already getting a discount and I ever so quickly replied that I just thought that since I was bringing in two at once that maybe they could give me a little more of a discount? She replied that, "yea, o.k., sure. We could probably do that." So though I know this is going to be expensive, at least it won't be as expensive. Every little bit helps and if you don't ask, you don't get.

Happy Halloween Everyone! Muahahahahaha....

Happy Halloween!

Normal days...

Boy! It has been a while. Nothing more than the usual going on. Dogs getting along better with the occasional growling and snarling thrown in.
I spent last weekend in Taos for the wool Festival. Had a great time. Got to spin on a spinning wheel for the first time and discovered that I think I'd like to learn to spin. But first you have to have a spinning wheel. Some day...
Kids all doing well in school and everyone is getting along at the house.
I wish I had more news to share or something exciting to write about, but alas... just normal stuff.
Hope all is well with everyone else!

Cisco! and more additions

Well as you all know by now we've added a precious pup to the household. His name is Cisco Charlemagne. He is a Brindle and White Poodle mix. Born on June 21, 2011. He now weighs about 2.5 lbs at 9 weeks of age.

Yes, I realize that all the pictures are pretty much of him asleep. Well, that is the only way we can get nice clear picture of him for the moment. Otherwise we get blurry pictures since he's on a tear through the house.
Getting weighed... almost 2.5 lbs!
Transitions... we've brought the downstairs up! Goodbye nasty couches. Hello beautiful leather.
Our new upstairs family room with the downstairs stuff. Love it! Ivan and Hansel were kind enough to donate their Sunday evening to help get this done quickly. Thanks guys!

Where has the time gone?

Its been almost 2 months since my last installment of information. Good grief.

Its 4:30 a.m. I've been up for over half and hour. There's a fire just north of the Academy, about 60 acres large now. I'll be seeing it as I drive by heading to Denver today with a group of ladies on a yarn expedition. Have no fear I'm not looking to buy, but rather checking out stores as my favorite LYS is about to close. One week and Knitters Kove will be gone for good. Mind you its not the economy but family that is the impetus for the closing.

I guess I should start back at the beginning of those supposed lazy days of July...

I put the speed on to get David's socks completed as I had other stuff that I wanted to get started on AND I had a pair of socks for myself that I wanted to be done with! I know you can't see from this picture that there is a beautiful single stitch cable that runs the length of these socks. What a pain, actually they were quite boring to do. I have no idea how women knitted plain ol socks without losing their minds. But I have to admit to being very impressed when I see them. The single cable just sets them off. I'll never do another pair. Definitely a love/hate relationship.


Getting ready for our camping trip to Gunnison. Jolie was kind enough to get rid of the previous trips dirt for me.
I had to get a picture of the poo's lazing in the deck bar stool. They are always content to be where ever I am. I love sitting at the table and doing knitting in the a.m. before the kids get up.

4th of July! Breaking out the fireworks.
One of our stops on the camping trip to Gunnison. We spent a few hours at Black Canyon and if you'll notice Parker is wearing only one shoe. Quite literally, a second before I snapped this picture his second flippy went over the side of the deck into the canyon. I have no idea why he put his foot back there, but it ended our adventure that day, as the temps climbed into the upper 90's and we had just hiking left to do.
So the day Bonnie, the girls, Grammie and Papa arrived my cars odometer flipped 100,000.0 miles. I was home with the little kids so Kristina and David took this picture for me.
Another birthday! Parker turned 9! I can't believe it. Now I'm having trouble remembering how old everyone is...


Group shot at about 5:30 a.m. We were getting ready to get Grammie and Papa headed back home.

This is the pair of socks that I desparately wanted to get finished for myself. Yes!

There's a new car in the family. She got her license on August 18th! Yeah!

The beginning of another project. This is going to be a shawl. Yep! That's a lot of beads..... 5000 to be exact.

Another scarf. This one will have a beautiful drape and weight to it. I'm almost 50% done.

She's got her violin! This kid is so excited that the first day she had it, she'd picked out Twinkle, Twinkle and Row, row, row your boat. Her first private lesson is Monday the 22nd and then she'll be taking orchestra at school as well.

Our second camping of the summer and Jake is as always protective of us. Making sure the Canadian geese don't get to friendly.

Our campsite. We really enjoyed having the Gazebo this trip.

Yum! Caponata. Eggplant, onion, celery, golden raisins, garlic, sherry vinegar, sugar, salt/pepper. Just delightfully tasty...

Finally after 6 weeks my new swing cushions arrived from Canada. I love them!

a friend visiting....

My surprise birthday present was a over night at a local B & B. We stayed at the Holden House in the Cripple Creek room.

Please note the large blue rubber Ducky on the side of the tub. He was huge!

Another surprise was a bird bath. I've wanted a bird bath for so long and here it is. I love the simplicity and it is terra cotta. I had Kristina and her friend, Kelly, make a sign and positioned one of my favorite pigs beside it. The sign reads, "SPA". So our birdy friends can eat at the bird feeders and totally clean themselves in/on our yard and deck.

Transitions in the making. After our trip to the B & B, I decided that it was time that we started enjoying our accumulated artwork/furnishings that we have downstairs. The kids are kids and don't appreciate the decorating we've done and we really don't go down there much anymore. So its time to bring up the Southwest decor and start enjoying it. This weekend will begin the major transformation. But for the time being here are a couple of pictures of some small changes.

I love the handwoven baskets.

Wow!

So much has gone on since I last checked in. Today will find us at the lake playing, picnicking and getting sun. But more of that later...
This is a picture of the deck pre-decorating. I need to take a picture of it now.

Jolie relaxing...

Time is getting close for our camping trip out to Gunnison, Co. with Yael and her boys! We're ALL so excited and anxious to get going. I still have the tents to set up and check for holes and just clean. Dad needs to check out the camp cooking devices. Last trip we discovered a broken part in the gas delivery system which almost took away our ability to cook on the stoves. So this time we're checking everything thoroughly before we go! I can't have no stove to cook on with this group. Actually we use stoves AND the campfire to cook our meals on.
Dad is finally starting to get better. He has battled pneumonia for a few months now. After 2 rounds of hellishly strong antibiotics followed up immediately by a Z-pack and then another antibiotic I think he can finally say that he is truly feeling better! Now if we can just get his voice back to normal. :-)


Here is the group with their 3-D glasses on watching Shrek 3-D.

We've had an interesting couple of weeks around here.

Parker was bitten by the neighbor's dog. Caught him right in the upper lip. I was able to repair the lip with a butterfly bandage, no stitches required. The kids have played with these dogs literally for years now and we've never had a problem. But the family had just added a Doberman pup a few days ahead of the bite and we figure that Haley may have been having some issues with the new addition and extra kids around just exasperated the situation. So Parker was unfortunately the recipent of Haley's bite. Bob brought Parker home and explained to me that Parker had done nothing to Haley to deserve this. I was relieved to hear that but obviously upset that he had been bitten.

I had a surprise root canal and major tooth re-building done. That, of course, is always fun and exciting! A great way to spend your morning....

Kristina headed off to Nebraska with a friend for about 10 days.

Took Olivia on a day long motorcycle trip around a bit of Colorado. We put 230 miles on the bike and she seemed to enjoy the day. We did a wonderful circle that took us through Johnson Village, Salida, Canyon City and then back to Colorado Springs. Long day with lots of beautiful country.

Knitting is coming along as usual.

Planting veggies on the deck with a few flowering plants.

Took a leaf from a couple of African Violets at a local store and I'm trying to get starts going. We'll see. Just couldn't bring myself to buy the whole plant as they were in bad shape. So far the leafs are still alive and appeared to be doing well until today. Oh well, I tried.
Dad painted the swing on the deck and we discovered that the company we originally purchased the set from is still in business and we should have cushions in 4 - 6 weeks. We also picked up a patio umbrella for the kids to sit under when we're all out there enjoying the day. We also finally were able to get cushions for the chairs. Our deck is now a livable area for us. Frankly it has shaped up quite nicely. I'm happy! Here's Max waiting patiently for his piece of the brats!

Jolie recieved her response from President Barak Obama. What an exciting day that was! She mailed a letter to the White House back in April, I believe. She was thrilled to see this envelope arrive at the house.

Cole came out and fixed the 3 tiles that we needed to have done. Yeah!
I had a group of ladies out to the house for a community knit on Sunday. Invited 18 in all, had 16 arrive with dishes to share. We had a good time and worked on making a fish dishcloth. I had hoped that we could go on the deck for the knitting time but the temps climbed up to the high 80's and there was no clouds in sights. So we stayed in.

Our day at the lake. Here is the beautiful weather that awaited us.

Ever the ham..... Hunter was having a good time!

Of the 7 bodies you see here, 6 were somehow related to me. Hard to believe this lake is in the middle of the city.